The Beginner's Guide to Writing Fanfiction
by KRenee
Summary: So, are you starting your first fanfiction? Are you trying to revamp an older story, but you're not sure how to "fix" it? Are you finding that, even though you've been writing for a while, you feel like you're stuck in a creative rut and want to expand and improve your craft? Well, this is the class for you!
1. Introduction

**The Beginners Guide to Writing Fanfiction**

Welcome to the _Beginners Guide to Writing Fanfiction_! Here, we'll go over the process of creative writing, including topics like:

How to create an original character

How to alter the plot to suit your needs

How to write the dialogue of characters

… and more!

So, are you starting your first fanfiction? Are you trying to revamp an older story, but you're not sure how to "fix" it? Are you finding that, even though you've been writing for a while, you feel like you're stuck in a creative rut and want to expand and improve your craft?

Well, this is the class for you! Come and join Professor KRenee as she goes over the process of writing a fanfiction. This is a class; students will be expected to participate! Please read to the end of this poster to find out more about this class and how to contact the professor should you decide to participate!

If you choose to participate in this class, please expect the following:

- You will have _**homework!**_Professor KRenee will post at least one assignment with each chapter. The assignments are meant to educate you, so please take them seriously and have them handed in by their due dates! While the class will not be held on a regular basis, your assignments will still be expected in a timely fashion. The faster the completed assignments get to the professor, the sooner you can expect the next class to be held.

- Your assignments will be _**criticized**_! Professor KRenee holds no accountability for hurt feelings. This class is meant to educate young and inexperienced writers. There will be no ego-stroking involved in this. If you cannot take constructive criticism for what it's worth, you should not sign up to participate. If you receive a criticism on your work, you should consider taking it as a compliment. The professor doesn't _have_ to be giving up her time to provide an educational setting for writers. She doesn't _have_ to allow anyone to actively participate in this "class." All criticism is meant to guide writers towards better craft. Disrespecting the professor can result in a failing grade on the assignment in question or being kicked out of the class altogether.

- Professor KRenee is _**not**_ a perfect author, nor is she a licensed teacher. As you grow and mature as an author, you may find that there are suggestions and pointers she gives that you do not agree with. In fact, you may find her suggestions and pointers disagreeable even now. That is fine. You are not required to agree with everything the professor says. The only requirement for this course is a willingness to learn.

- While asking questions is not mandatory, it is requested by the professor. Professor KRenee doesn't have a list of everything that amateur writers have problems with. If you have a question you want answered, ask it in the comments and it _will_ be answered in the next chapter. Questions asked by students will lengthen the amount of time spent on a topic. If the professor starts out with the topic of, say, an original character's name and the process that goes along with it, and students ask questions about what she says, the following chapter will be dedicated to answering those questions in as much detail as possible. There is a potential for getting a higher grade at the end of the course if you take participation seriously.

Any students interested in participating in the activities should send a private message (PM) directly to Professor KRenee. Further below is a form that should be included in your message.

Auditing the classes is acceptable! You **will not** be able to receive grades on any assignments you complete, nor will you be able to contribute directly to the topics held in class. But feel free to read and learn based on the answers and questions presented by other students and the professor herself.

Students will be accepted into the roster until the posting of Chapter 4. After that point, auditing will still be permissible but there will not be any additions to the list of participating students.

So, you're interested in participating in the class? Well, fill out this form and send it to the professor! You are _**required**_ to use proper grammar and spelling throughout your time as a student in this class. If you cannot take this seriously, don't expect the professor to take _you_ seriously.

All the information regarding **you** will be kept private. Those questions will only be used to gauge your approximate writing level so that the professor doesn't expect more from you than she should. If you're not comfortable answering anything, please just write that in the answer or leave it blank. Do not feel obligated to answer anything you don't feel comfortable answering.

If you need something explained, please ask BEFORE sending in your application, so that you can be sure you've correctly given the information that was asked of you. Thank you.

**The following questions are regarding you, the student. Please answer honestly and to the best of your knowledge. This information will **_**not**_** be shared with anyone outside of the professor; that is a **_**guarantee**_**.**

Age:

Gender:

Reading comprehension level by grade:

How long you've been writing:

What would you say is your best work published on the internet?:

What fandom(s) do you write in?:

Give three anime/manga that you read regularly:

**The following questions are going to be based on your **_**main**_** original character. If you do not have one, feel free to leave this out entirely. If you have many, choose ONE that you are most comfortable with. **

**Please answer honestly. Do not try to sweeten up the character or make them seem better or more rounded. Write exactly how you picture them; use the words that you'd normally use in a story that features them. **

**Remember, this is about the character! Don't write in stuff about you!**

Full name:

Age:

Gender:

Hair color:

Eye color:

Skin tone:

Quickie prompt:

It's the first day of school. Your character is a second-year in high school. S/he just transferred to a new school, so no one knows him/her yet. From another character's point of view (doesn't have to be an original character, use whoever you want), describe your character walking into the classroom and introducing him/herself.

.

_Write here_

.

The information you provide on your character will only be used as a reference for the public IF YOU ALLOW IT. If you are not comfortable with the professor posting information about your character for the sake of example or public critique to further the learning process, that is fine. It will not be held against you in any way.

If you are DENYING the professor permission to use your character for educational purposes, please write DENY at the end of your private message.

If you are ALLOWING the professor to use your character for educational purposes, please write ALLOW at the end of your private message.

Thank you for your interest in the _**Beginners Guide to Writing Fanfiction**_ course! Happy writing!


	2. The First Day of Class

**First Day of Class**

The door to the classroom opened, and the professor walked in. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and her stride spoke of excitement. Trailing behind her was a pale young girl with vivid red eyes and a faint smile. The professor stepped over to the table that would serve as her desk, pulling a laptop out of thin air and setting it down. A soft rustling sound moved through the room, mixtures of whispers and shifting students suggesting what might've been eagerness, but could also have been nervousness.

The professor moved over to the far right side of the room and reached into the wall, dragging a nicely sized armchair out of the space beyond the pale blue paint.

"Come, sit down over here," her voice was gentle, but there was a buzz of energy that seemed to come with every syllable. The young, red-eyed girl offered a quiet word of thanks and took her seat in the front of the classroom, off to the side where she wouldn't be intrusive. Even with her presence out of the immediate line of sight, she was incredibly conspicuous. Everyone wanted to know exactly who she was, why she was there. Wasn't this a class made up of real people? How was there someone with red eyes? How could she be _that_ fair skinned?

The professor snapped her fingers at the wall, and a whiteboard appeared. It was large enough to take up the entire wall behind her. There was a pause as her eyes swept over the room. There were only a few students with actual faces; the rest were darkened, anonymous shadows of people. Some were female in shape, others male, but they were clearly nothing more than placeholders.

"Small class so far," the professor noted as she pulled a package of markers out of her pockets. It was rather impressive to watch her move, pulling things out of places that they couldn't possibly have fit into, spinning around a few times with her hands almost flailing with uncertainty and energy. She looked through the packet of markets for a moment before choosing an electric blue color and turning to the whiteboard.

She wrote a penname on the board and turned back to the class, "Welcome to my course in fanfiction writing. My name is KRenee, and I must say that I'm glad the few of you who are here were able to find the classroom so easily in your cluttered imaginations. I expected at least one of you to get helplessly lost." She paused, grinning and chuckling, "Well, who knows? Maybe someone _is_ lost. I suppose we'll find out, ne?"

The students and anonymities in the room looked around at each other, sharing some wary glances. In all honesty, they _were_ interested in this course; that was how they'd found the strangely placed classroom.

"Alright then, shall we begin?" KRenee clasped her hands together, flipping open her laptop and clicking on a few things amongst her screen, "Since this class is placed in a figment of linked imaginations, I don't think it'll be necessary for us to use PowerPoint slides. Before we get to the actual teaching portion, there are a couple of things I need to go over with all of you."

More glances around the room as KRenee stepped around to stand in front of the table-desk, "Aggressive behavior directed towards other students or myself will not be tolerated. You are all expected to be civil. There will be no jeering or name-calling, no insults or slurs of any kind, and absolutely no bashing of other's work. If you don't like something, that's alright. You can say so, but in a polite and meaningful way. This class is for learning and improving, not an excuse to fight with someone."

"If you are contacted by someone who is being verbally abusive to you, report their username to me. If they are on the student roster, they will be expelled from the class. If they're not, I encourage you to report them to the Fanfiction dot net staff for abuse. _Please_ do not engage in a bashing battle. It's not worth it. If two students are fighting and they both report each other, I will expel them both without question. I am not going to tolerate drama. Okay?"

There was a chorus of nods from around the room, and KRenee smiled appreciatively, "Good. All the enrolled students should have an email address for me. Please send all your assignment to that email address. I want .doc or .docx files, alright? That'll make it easier for me to keep track of all your work. If you didn't get an email address from me, send me a private message and I'll give it to you."

More bobbing heads. The dark-haired professor took a moment to canvass the room again, her smile becoming slightly more serious as she debated the next topic of her lecture. She pinched her lip between her teeth, deep in thought.

"Alright, let's start simple," KRenee finally said, looking up from the spot on the floor she'd been staring at, "We're going to go through this in pieces. First, we'll go through the character-making process, and then we'll get into the craft of writing. So, the first thing you do when you're making a character is one of two things; either you figure out what they look like, or you figure out their name. Those two things are interchangeable in their order. Some people can't think of a name until they have a design, others are the opposite." She was able to jump right into it once she started talking, almost like a switch had been flipped in her brain.

"I write a certain way, and a lot of this course is going to be based on the order of which I do things. Don't feel like you have to do the same thing; do whatever you feel comfortable with, and never force yourself. I'm going to repeat that a lot throughout this course, so try to bear with me," she smiled, stepping around the desk again. She grabbed a random marker and started writing on the board again.

"Come here," she beckoned the girl from the armchair that nearly everyone had forgotten about. The girl immediately stood and walked briskly over to the professor, "This is my original character. Introduce yourself, hon."

The girl waved, her smile widening for just a second, "My name is Tsubaki Kaisuki."

"This is Kaisuki at the age of 12. You'll probably meet the older version of her later on in this course," KRenee stated, "Now, Kaisuki, do you remember what your name used to be? Like, ten months ago?"

The girl blinked, looking confused for a moment before she made a soft "oh" sound and nodded, "My name _was_ Tsubaki Kai_zuki_, with a 'z' instead of an 's.'"

KRenee nodded in agreement, "Now, do any of you think you might know why I changed her name?"

Not a single hand was raised, but it was to be expected. In a new classroom setting, the students were a little nervous about being wrong and being called on their mistake. KRenee smiled encouragingly, but no one said a word.

"Kaizuki isn't a word in Japanese," KRenee finally explained, "It doesn't have any sensible meaning, even if you break it up. I spent a few hours one day trying to translate her name into English properly, but I couldn't find a way to get a meaning out of it. Japanese names are not non-sensible.

"So, understanding that I couldn't translate Kai_zuki_ into Japanese, I decided to experiment a little and plugged _kai_ and _suki_ into Google Translate separately. For _kai_ I got _being in between_ or through. For _suki_, I, of course, got _love_. By putting those two words together, I was able to get Kaisuki, which means _through love_ or _being in between affections_." She paused, glancing around the room to make sure the students were following her words. They seemed to be understanding her so far, so she nodded and continued, "That is completely okay when you're making a character. If you think of a name you really like, but it's not a real Japanese name, you can tweak it so it has a meaning, but sounds close to the original. There are dozens of ways to find a name that's proper Japanese and fits your character and world."

She then brandished a finger towards a random name she'd written on the board – _Dabinaki Hiaria_. "Therefore, you have no excuse to invent a name that _kind of_ _sort of_ sounds like Japanese. There are _very_ few situations that call for invented names like this one, and even then I recommend that you stick to names that you can cleanly translate into English."

"The last thing I want to go over with prompting is a very simple rule-o'-thumb," she continued after a brief pause, "You should _never_, under _any_ circumstance, use your own name in a fanfiction based in Japan and amongst Japanese culture. It's one thing if your story is set in America with American characters, or even in Britain amongst British characters. Unless you're actually Japanese and actually have a Japanese name, you should _never_ use your given name to christen your character."

"Okay, before I start answering questions, I'd like to give you your first homework assignment," there was a collective groan, and KRenee laughed heartily, "I know, I know. Homework the first day sucks, but I'm hoping it'll be a fun little activity for you all. It shouldn't take more than half an hour, unless you get really into it and decide to experiment or apply it to several different characters for fun."

Still no smiles, but KRenee didn't let it deter her, "Okay, so your assignment is to take your main original character and, using Google Translate, I want you to find the Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana for their name. If the Kanji for the chosen name doesn't exist, there's a possibility that the name isn't real Japanese. In that case, I'd like you to contact me and we'll go over your character's name."

She paused for a moment in thought, and then continued, "If you don't have an original character, that's completely fine. You can either figure out a name of your choice based on a meaning of your choice, _or_ you can translate _your_ name into English, and then translate that meaning into Japanese. I'll write examples and directions on the whiteboard for you, so take a look at that before you go."

"I'll expect your assignments back by Monday. It shouldn't take you that long, but I know many of you have lives outside of fanfiction and creative writing." She glanced over at her original character, beckoning her, "Make sure you understand the assignment before attempting to complete it. If you're confused, ask me for more details in the comments."

The professor snapped her laptop shut, and it dissipated into the air. At the same moment, Kaisuki stepped back into the pale blue walls and disappeared into it. KRenee smiled, clasping her hands together as she sat back against the desk-table.

"Alright, are there any questions about today's topic?"

* * *

**The Whiteboard**

**Teacher's Note: **_Good luck! If you have any questions, PM the professor OR comment on the "class!" The assignment itself should be written into a MSWord .doc OR .docx and **EMAILED IN AN ATTACHMENT** to the professor! If you do not have the Professor's email address, **PM her** and she will give it to you!  
_

**Example Names: **Tsubaki Kaisuki

Renee

**Example one with directions for translations:** Your name in Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana (I reccommend use of the site **behindthename DOT com**)

By following the history of the name **Renee **to it's original, Late Latin form (**Renatus**), I discovered the meaning of the name is (essentially) **born again**. Now, I will go to Google Translate, arrange the translation to be **English to Japanese**, and plug in the phrase **born again**, with no capitals.

What I get is "**umarekawaru**." Now, if I want, I can make that into two words and create a surname and first name. **Umare** means **born**, and **kawaru** means **change**(s/d). So, I can have my character's name as **Umare Kawaru**, which can mean **born changed**. This is a legitimate name! Woohoo!

Now that I have the Romaji and English, I can figure out the Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. Switch the translation back to **English to Japanese** and type in **born**. There should be an option for phonetic spelling (Romaji), so you can see if Google gave you the right translation and thus, the correct Kanji.

So, the **Kanji** is: 生まれ

Now, take the **Kanji** and find a **Kanji to** **Hiragana/Katakana** website. I'm personally going to use **nihongo DOT j-talk DOT com**

Now, I plug in the **Kanji **(**生まれ**) for **Umare** and tell the converter to translate it.

(You'll have to select "**Katakana**" or "**Hiragana**" in the drop down menu below the text box in order to get it translated to a different script.)

So!

**Kanji:** 生まれ

**Katakana:** ウマレ

**Hiragana (which can be hinkey, don't mind it): **うまれ

**Example two:** Your character's name in Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana.

Kaisuki

**Katakana: **カイスキ

**Kanji: **介好き

**Hiragana:** カイスキ

Tsubaki

**Katakana: **ツバキ

**Kanji: **椿

**Hiragana:** つばき

**Teacher's Note: **_Good luck! If you have any questions, PM the professor OR comment on the "class!" The assignment itself should be written into a MSWord .doc OR .docx and EMAILED to the professor! If you do not have the Professor's email address, PM HER and she will give it to you!_

_Thank you! Happy writing!_


End file.
